Princesses' Big Brother?
by SixSouls
Summary: A guy I met at a tournament gave me this weird necklace...Now, I've been transported to the land of ponies, 10 years after Equestria's founding! Worse, I'm an Alicorn. Wait, the King up and adopted me? Now I'm the big brother of two little princesses, one who resents me! What does this mean for me? This changes quite a lot, doesn't it? What'll happen to history with Midnight Star?
1. 1 - Abnormal Day

**Greetings to all. I am SixSouls. It was recommended to me that I try and write a FanFiction online due to how well I write on paper. So, as little time as I have for anything, I'm going to try this. I prefer writing surreal fiction, so I thought a 'fic like this would be a good start. Please note that this is my first FanFic.**

 **Also, this story can be greatly influenced by the readers! Polls will often be up on my profile for** _ **you**_ **to affect how certain things go, or even what may happen next. Thank you for your possible future participation.**

 **Anyhow, please enjoy.**

* * *

 _Creeeeeee..._

I wake up, albeit slowly. Judging by the darkness of my room, it must be the dead of night, likely well past the time known as the 'witching hour.' For me to have awoken like this... had I heard something? There's no other reason I could've woken up, as I feel no need to use the bathroom or get a glass of water. In my groggy state, I listen to all the noises I can hear. The majority of sounds came from outside, and when I push aside the window blinds, I find that…

…It was a dark and stormy night.

…Seriously, it is. The rain is coming down heavily enough to make a very sharp pattering against the house, and thunder could be heard in the distance, accompanying the occasional flashes of lightning. In any case, I had been woken up, and now groggily wore a deadpan expression towards the cliché weather.

Accepting the fact that I'd probably not be falling back asleep tonight, I go to climb out of bed to use my laptop. That's when I hear it.

 _Click-clomp, click-clomp._

Faintly hearing an unfamiliar noise, I carefully sit up so as to not make the bed creak. Upon assuming a sitting position, I stay completely still for a long moment until I hear the noise once more.

 _Click-clomp, click-clomp._

It's very faint, to the point that I can barely make it out. But I know for a fact that that noise is completely foreign to me. We have no machinery, devices, or pets that make that sound in the house. So naturally, this new sound has me quite intrigued, and very alert.

I carefully climb out of my loft bed, careful not to let the wooden ladder steps creak as I do so. I check the alarm clock that's on my desk, which shows in a bright lime-green light that the time is two forty-two in the morning. _'Yup,'_ I thought, knowing I had to be up at seven o' clock. _'Definitely going to have trouble getting back to sleep.'_

Putting aside my irritation, I move my focus back to the matter at hand, cautiously walking across my room and putting my ear to my door. Soon enough, I heard the noise again.

 _Click-clomp, click-clomp. Click-clomp, click-clomp._

What even is that sound? I certainly don't recognize it, and with it moving at such a rhythm, I can't…

 _Click-clomp, click-clomp. Click-clomp, click-clomp._

Are those… footsteps?

 _Click-clomp, click-clomp. Click-clomp, click-clomp._

After a moment of pondering the possibilities, I conclude that that is the only possible thing the sound could be, what with the frequent rhythm they appear to move at. I know for a fact that it certainly isn't any of the roommates, because they're both home, and they both know that you're not to walk around with your shoes outside of the foyer and garage.

It seems to be that someone is —rather unstealthily— walking around on the downstairs wood floor in their shoes, and they're certainly taking their time browsing our belongings, taking very brisk, paced steps. I'm surprised no one else in the house has been woken up by this noisy intruder. Personally, I'm fully awake now.

 _Click-clomp, click_ _—_

Quite suddenly, the strange footsteps simply stop halfway through. After hearing a small, familiar _creak_ , it occurs to me that whomever it was downstairs must be coming up the carpeted stairs. For a moment, I find myself quietly panicking, realizing that if I were to leave my room now, I would rather quickly find myself facing this intruder, who very possibly could be armed and dangerous. With that logic in mind, I continue to listen through my bedroom door, keeping my oncoming hyperventilation in check, reassuring myself that I'll be fine. After all, if they came into my room, I would have time to press myself against the wall, and have my door and coat rack conceal me.

As I continue to listen, I can hear whoever it was carefully opening the doors to other bedrooms, then closing them back about a minute later. They seemed to be checking in every room for something. I pinned myself against the wall so that my door would hide me when my door was opened. I was still very confused as to how nobody had been awoken by them yet. I first hear the master bedroom door open, followed by the workout room door, then the roommates' door…

Wait, the roommates' door? But… that door has a code lock installed on it! Was it left unlocked? Or did the intruder somehow know the passcode? I begin wondering if the intruder was one of our previous roommates here for some reason… but why would any of them waltz in in the dead of the night? Then, the realization of that causes me to remember that the front door also has a passcode lock. I quickly find myself even more worried about this intruder. Either they're someone I'll know well enough to give a strict questioning, or they're someone who's been observing us for quite some time. I have a sinking feeling that it's the latter.

After I hear the office door close, a few seconds pass until I hear a quiet chuckle come from behind my door. I quickly press my back against the wall and control my breathing t be soundless right before it opens. I'm certain that I am completely hidden from the intruder's sight, what with the door, multiple coats and jackets, and the darkness of the night all concealing my presence. Unfortunately, this is also a disadvantage for me. With my vision blocked by the door, I find myself unable to see who the intruder is.

After a short moment of silence, the intruder finally vocalizes, "Hmmm…" The murmur gives away his gender, at least, so I know now that he's male.

I hear his feet briskly move across my room's carpet as he went through my room. From what I can hear, he's moving my closet door to the side, then lifting my couch up. After he places it down not-so-soundlessly, I figure that he's probably looking for a specific person, and that person very well could be me. I hear my desk chair move, its wheels sliding across the carpet, the sound clear in the quiet of the night. I assume that he's looking under my desk. Finally, I hear my loft bed creak slightly, giving away that he's searching for someone there.

After he's finished rifling through my room with no results, the intruder lets out a confused murmur. Then, he speaks out his confusion.

"Strange... is there really no one here…?" I hear his voice say quietly enough that it was probably meant to be just to himself. However, the voice is shockingly familiar to me, to the point that I would consider that I'm hearing things.

My eyes widen at the impossibility of the intruder's voice. I feel my heart pound as my brain tries to make sense of this inconceivable situation. I desperately try to keep myself calm, but hyperventilation momentarily gets the advantage and I end up taking in a breath a little too loudly.

My breath did not go undetected. Swiftly, my door is flung closed, not to the point of being slammed, but still doing the job. I find myself facing someone I'd never expect to be able to physically meet on any conceivable natural terms.

"H-How…" is all I can manage to stammer as I look up at him.

He intimidatingly towers above me, his eyes gleaming like a cat's in the dark. He's looking down at me, his eyes looking over my face, which I am definitely sure holds quite an astonished expression. He chuckles as he makes eye contact with me, then begins to speak. I cannot clearly see his face in the dark, but I do see his jaw move with every word.

"So you _were_ here... you were simply hiding from me. How curious…" He says to me. I seem to have lost my voice, and he chuckles before he continues. "You have an unexpectedly good sense of hearing. I hadn't expected to be discovered in this fun little mission. That does spice this up for me, though, so you won't find me complaining." As he speaks, I can practically _hear_ the smile in his voice.

After staring at my terrified self for a long minute that drags on in the absolute silence, his gaze moves away from me, and instead travels about my room, lingering on the walls for some time. I can see his smiling expression with my eyes completely adjusted to the dark as he returns his eyes to me. He chuckles again, this time with what sounds to be a sense of amusement instead of mischief.

"I do so believe she was right in her target selection. You'll likely do better than we initially intended…" He says cryptically.

Finding my voice again, I inquire of that, "H-Huh? What d-does that mean?" I don't like the way he's phrased that. That sounds like something a kidnapper working for an organization would say, but that's probably unlikely based on who's the one saying it.

His eyes gleam in the darkness as he turns his back on me, seemingly completely ignoring my query. He then raises an arm and brings his hand to his face, possibly examining something in it.

"Nicely, indeed…" He says with a chuckle.

"What do you mean, I'll do nicely?" I say clearly, my confusion momentarily overpowering my fear. This time, it gets his attention as he turns back towards me, and a response is received. His tone gives away his amusement towards… well, whatever could possibly have him amused.

"Ah, well, as much as I'd _love_ to tell you, I'm not allowed to spoil the fun. You know how women are and all, yes? Lady's orders prevent me from just doing whatever I want here," He responds unhelpfully, just leaving me even more confused. "Sorry, kid. But hey, I hear you've got something real important to get to tomorrow, and seeing as it's… what… three eighteen in the morning? You ought to be sleeping, right?"

Looking at the clock and pulling myself away from my disbelief that this dialogue could even be happening right now, I find that he is correct in his time telling. I am momentarily brought back to a logical train of thought as I realize with a panic that I must be up in less than four hours.

"Need help getting to sleep?" He suddenly asks. "Allow me!"

Without any warning, he flicks me on the forehead rather painfully.

* * *

With a start, I wake up.

I jolt out of my bed, hitting my forehead painfully upon the ceiling as I do so. Cursing my younger self for wanting such a tall bed under my breath, I climb out of the loft bed and glance at my clock.

6:56 a.m., it reads in that lime-green light.

I glower at the clock that is minutes away from going off, and take a seat in my desk chair. That dream still somewhat fresh in my mind, I look around at what he may have been looking at. But all that was on my walls were random posters of characters from games and anime, and other drawings I've made up in my free time.

I suddenly realize that I'm putting a little too much concern into what was simply a dream. _'Why am I even dwelling on this?'_ It was a just a dream, and it couldn't mean anything in reality.

Yet, as I scan over my room's walls myself, I found my eyes glued to the poster made by Kiriska placed next to my door.

Why was it him?

The alarm clock then went off, and I press the stop button.

* * *

 **Princesses' Big Brother!?  
Chapter One – Abnormal Day**

* * *

I proceeded to dress myself, replacing my sci-fi-themed sleepwear with cargo shorts, a plain black tee-shirt, and a cargo button-down tee. I head down the stairs to find that no one else is home. I have the house to myself. I love having the house to myself.

After checking my phone for messages, I confirmed that I have no work today, and entered the kitchen, looking around at what I might make for breakfast. I settle for bacon, eggs, corn, and ramen all in one bowl, with some grapes, carrots, and nori on the side.

During and after my meal, I watch the most recent episodes of the multiple anime that I'm currently following, as I figure that I have nothing better to do to pass the time. In the middle of Episode Eleven of _To LOVE Ru Darkness 2nd_ , it suddenly hits me that there's still a few chores that need to be done before I head out today. I get those chores done as quickly as possible, without sacrificing the quality of the cleaning, leaving behind the television that has my show paused on a perfect freezeframe at the scene where Yukki Rito has tripped while walking across a beanstalk-like plant. I am understandably anxious to return to this after my chores.

As I'm sweeping, however, I notice that there're a few scuff marks on the wood floors that weren't there yesterday. I sighed, figuring that my one of the roommates, or possibly my stepfather, must have forgotten to take off their shoes at the door again this morning, probably dragging their feet across the floor. I later scrubbed the scuff marks off the floor, and left a note on the common area whiteboard for the household regarding what had happened, deliberately not calling out any singular person in order for this to be a message to all, instead of the berating of one.

* * *

As I am finishing up turning off the television and gathering my belongings that I'll be needing today, I look over at the stove clock, which currently reads eleven-seventeen in the morning. I get up, making sure I have everything that I'll need, and walk to the door, slipping on my black leather shoes and wrapping a black long-sleeved button-down and a blue hoodie around my waist, just in case.

I leave the house, having placed a separate note on the counter telling anyone who cares where I went off to so they don't think that I'd been kidnapped or some shit. Now, if you couldn't tell before, I love cargo clothes, because I have many things I carry with me, and bags really weigh a person down. Allow me to explain.

In my cargo tee, I have my GameBoy Color in the left chest pocket, and the games for it in the right. Similarly, my Game Boy Advance is in the right lower pocket, and the games for it as well as spare 'AA' batteries in the left. My cargo shorts hold my 3DS in the upper left pocket, and the case for its games and its charger in the lower left. The upper right pocket contains my PSP, and the lower right is deep enough to hold my Nextbook laptop-tablet alongside its charger. Cargo clothing, as you can see, is extremely useful, and negates the need for a heavy bag, especially when the pockets are button-up or come with a zipper.

I leave my home cul-de-sac filled to the brim with determination, as I am quite excited for the event I'm heading to today.

I was attending my third tournament.

* * *

It had been a long while since I actually had the time to go to the tournament with all the things on my plate, such as both high- and vocational school, as well as my part-time job, so I find myself really pumped for this. Honestly, I don't expect to do well, even though this isn't exactly an official 'best of the best' kind of tournament. It's not likely that anyone famous in this field of gaming would attend. Even with those thoughts, I head to the Park and Ride that's close to home and wait for the city transit to arrive.

It was when I got on the bus a few moments later that my day started becoming a slight bit off. I head to the furthest back of the bus and sit down in the very middle seat, dubbed 'The Throne' by my friends and I, where the seats are mostly unoccupied. In fact, the only one that is occupied back here is just near me, in one of those seats that faces towards the aisle. In the one further away from me of those two seats was a young woman who looks to be likely in her late twenties.

Her hair is a dark black with a red streak that goes all the way down the middle, and is long enough to go halfway down her back. She wore a plain tan sundress. She holds a dark purple purse with a bright blue cover, and I can see from her hand placed on the bag that her nails are painted a vibrant yellow. She wears green socks that go halfway up her calf for some reason, and her sneakers are completely brown, outer sole and laces included. To say the least, she seems to have a strangely unique fashion sense.

She looks up as I walk into the back of the bus, now wearing what looks like a knowing smile. Her expression gives off a sense as if she had been expecting to see me. Her piercing green eyes follow me as I sit down. I suspect that she'll probably say something.

"Hello," She greets me.

"Hello," I greet back, albeit reflexively. Looks like I was right.

"Where are you headed?" She asks me. I'm used to dealing with conversational passengers on the transit, and often just give them subtle hints that I don't want to engage in any dialogue. However, I'm in a bit of a better mood today, so I decide it won't hurt anything to answer this lady.

"I'm going to a gaming tournament," I tell her.

"Oh, that's sounds entertaining. Where at?"

"It's at the convention center near the mall."

"Oh. I'm headed to the mall, myself. I'm going shopping," she tells me. "I'll likely be getting off before you, then."

"Possibly," I answer her speculation. "It would depend on if you get off before or after the bus passes Sears." She tells me that she does, in fact, get off before Sears, in which I respond that I'd be on the bus a few stops longer than she.

She smiles kindly after that interaction and introduces herself, "My name's Erica."

I reciprocate the smile and introduce myself. I find that, for once, there's a worthwhile conversation to be had with a stranger on the bus.

We continue to chat during the ride, various topics being discussed, with only one really worthy of noting.

"Would you mind if I ask you a question that could be considered random and possibly strange?" Erica asks after we conclude a discussion about pufferfish.

"Uh, sure," I allow. "Shoot."

She leans forwards towards me, and with a raised finger, she asks in a hushed tone, "Do you believe that someone who holds an absolute power, one that can be considered far beyond others, should use it for their personal advantage, or for others'?"

I kind of just blank for a moment after processing the inquiry. It was a question that really made my mind to work. Certainly, a strange question, this was one of those tests that can determine the type of person you truly are in your soul.

"Well, it depends on what kind of 'absolute power' this is," I question her question, intending to dig further for more details. I was curious as to exactly what she meant.

She looks slightly shocked that I hadn't given an instant answer for her question, but instead pried further into it. She smiled at that, and explained further, "Let's say, for example, being able to do what is sometimes referred to as 'godmoding.'"

"Alright then." She's talking about godmoding? That's one hell of a power to make such a decision over.

I think about the given scenario for a few minutes, before finally coming to a conclusion.

"Personally, I'd say it should be used in a form of a three-way balance," I start. Erica appears to be confused by my answer, so I go on to explain in more detail.

"I don't believe it should _just_ be used for one's personal benefits, nor should it _just_ be used to benefit others. I don't mean you _shouldn't_ use the power; If one has such a power, one certainly shouldn't neglect it. Instead, I believe that the one who has that power should balance it out to _all three_ of those ways; Use it for yourself, as well as for others, but also issue restraint. In other words, sometimes, just _don't_ use it. If you allow yourself to go overboard and rely on such power for _everything_ , eventually, ...well..." I carry on to take on the tone of an infomercial advertiser, "Side effects may include loss of care for the world and those around you, eventually going mad with power, getting grand delusions that you could actually foolishly carry out, and betraying the hearts of everyone you know and love."

About halfway through my explanation, Erica had started staring at me with wide eyes. At the end of it, I feel as if I had spoken like a philosopher, but that just may be my seventeen-year-old mindset's ego trying to swell. After about a half-minute of awkward silence, Erica gives a small chuckle. Her tittering confuses me, but she soon responds to my detailed answer.

"Wow. Just... wow!" Erica exclaims. "You _really_ thought about that question, and came up with such a beautiful conclusion! That's the best answer I've heard from anyone ever! Thank you for that. I now know that I wa—" she said with a smile, her eyes positively sparkling. Suddenly, the intercom on the bus interrupts, and Erica looks up disappointingly. "Ahh, looks like this is my stop. Thank you for the pleasant chat."

"It was enjoyable," I tell her, giving her a smile and a small wave goodbye as she stepped off the bus. I realize that the woman is quite tall, more so than most tall people I know.

I didn't think anything abnormal of the conversation at all, nor did I stop to wonder what she was going to say before she was cut off. It was just small talk, anyways.

* * *

I got off the bus, glad that I had had someone to talk to on the way here so that I hadn't drained my handheld's batteries beforehand. I walked toward the building that was hosting the tournament with hopes that there'll be as much of a challenge this time as I remember from last time.

As I get closer to the front doors of the convention center, I hear someone call out my name. I turn around, and see the two friends of mine who had invited me to join them in this tournament some weeks ago. Both of them male, the Asian-American guy is very physically fit, with healthy brown hair and a lean muscle mass, while the white guy may as well have been a look-alike of Shaggy from the live-action _Scooby-Doo_ , except younger. Taking on some overexaggerated confidence, I smirk at them as something considerably witty comes to mind.

"So!" I called back to them. "You guys actually showed up! I was afraid that I might not've see you!"

"And why's that?" the Asian-American, Kaylub, asked back with a raised brow, likely unsure of what I mean. The lanky one, Terry, wears an inquisitive expression at my statement.

"Obviously because _I'm_ here, participating," I tell them, acting like I've got top-notch skill. "I feared that that fact might've scared you two off."

Kaylub takes a gasp of fake hurt and wore an accompanying expression. Terry scoffs in response as he says, "Do you mean to say... that we'd fear you?"

" _Nooo,_ I mean to say that you'd have no problem eliminating me," I respond in kind, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You mean that wasn't already true?" Kaylub asks, false shock present in his tone.

We share a laugh as we enter the building.

The convention center was full of people, but we make a beeline for the registration line before we start socializing with anyone else. Today is going to be awesome. I hope that I can at least make it to just before the quarterfinals.

* * *

Hours later, I'm currently steeling myself for my next opponent. From what Kaylub has told me, this guy has a 'wicked nasty' strategy that no one had been able to work their way around or even properly counter yet. I had come far, and was going to be facing this 'Drake' person in the semi-finals of the tournament. I have found that the majority of my opponents were just as challenging as I had initially hoped, and I was glad to have made it further than my original goal. I'm quite determined to continue pushing forwards to enter the final round. However, from what I'd heard in my consultations with all his previous opponents in this tournament, his strategy was nigh unreadable, seemingly came out of nowhere, and he'd wipe the floor with them without missing a beat. And the its execution was almost always slightly different, as if it were built to handle and counter any possible opposing strategy. So, I found myself extraordinarily interested in how my next opponent played.

Quite suddenly, Kaylub pulls me aside from the girl I was gaining advice from and points the man out of the crowd. I then thank and excuse myself from the girl to take a faraway gander at him. From what I could see, Drake is a Caucasian man who wears red jeans and a brown sleeved-vest. His jet-black hair goes far down his back, and his brown shoes, squinting let me see that they were Converses, had neon green laces. That was all I could see from afar.

It was later when we both approached the table and shook hands that my day then became even stranger. I take this chance to get a closer look at Drake. His face was showing a trace of wrinkle, and he had a small bit of a scruff down the middle of his chin that extended to his upper neck. From looks alone, I speculated that he may be in his forties. As for attire, he has wrapped his hands in yellow bandages. He wears scarlet red contacts, which undoubtedly gave him an edge in intimidation. He has a striped shirt in the colors of blue and purple. He smiles at me, revealing a missing canine, and bowed his head in a respectful manner. This close, I can see that there are streaks in his hair of blue and white. I wondered if streaks in hair was suddenly becoming a really popular thing now even with older adults. I don't really keep up with trends, so I wouldn't know.

However, his most striking feature was the sclera of his eyes, which I couldn't help but to question him about.

"Before we begin…" I trail off in my opening question.

"Hmm?"

"Do you have thalassemia?" I ask.

Drake smiles and politely replies, "No, actually, I have G6PD deficiency. Good guess, though."

"Ah," I say, and sit down. He does the same. We exchange names. We prepare ourselves for the match.

It was then that he proceeded to royally kick my ass.

* * *

My friends and I leave the building with varying expressions. Terry was disappointed in himself, having lost in the second round. Kaylub, who had lost to me in the quarterfinals, was concerned towards my current state. He must have noticed that I'd donned an expression of deep thought and careful consideration.

"What's up?" He asks me.

"Hmm? ...I'm thinking about Drake," I reply with a troubled tone. His demeanor in our match had really quite irked me, and I can't help but think back to it.

"Who, me?" a voice asks.

The three of us start as we turn around to see Drake, who appears to have just left the building and overheard me. I look up at him, noticing how tall he is, and reply, "You never spoke once during our match."

"I didn't see the need to," he responds, shrugging. "I felt that words were not needed in our match."

"And why's that?" I ask of him. I've unexpectedly realized that his voice is somewhat familiar, as if I've heard it somewhere before. However, it sounds much too deep to be recognizable, as if it is being masked, so I can't exactly place my finger on it. Perhaps, if I keep him talking, I'll have a better chance at identifying it.

"You were different. A challenge," Drake answers, his complete seriousness evident in his tone.

I look up at the man, honestly surprised by his words. Me? A challenge? After my long absence from the entire tournament scene? _Flattering,_ I think to myself. _But I smell bullshit._

Before I can respond at all, Drake reaches into the inside of his sleeved vest and pulls a sparkling item out of it.

Hooked onto a blue chain, encased in what very well could be gold, is a decently-sized amethyst about the size of half my palm that's in the perfect shape of a five-pointed star. My eyes widen at the sight of it, and I'm sure my friends' did, too. It is certainly a very impressive necklace.

Drake smiled at our expressions. "Beautiful, eh? I wanted you to have it."

My friends look at me in awe after he says this, but I begin to feel suspicions as to this sudden gift.

"Seriously?" I ask him, hardening my gaze. I'm scanning for any signs of falsities or bullshitting.

"Yes," he affirms simply. I can detect no negative intent from him.

"And exactly what reason would you have to give me such a valuable necklace? If I'm not mistaken, that looks very much like a real jewel," I openly question Drake's intent. Kaylub and Terry were apparently very shocked as to the fact that I wasn't simply taking the gem right of the bat. But I feel that I need to be certain this wasn't somehow some sort of a trap.

"It is," Drake confirms, his smile growing. "I figured I'd give it to you, seeing as you were clearly the most impressive opponent I faced. You put up quite an intense fight. You even nearly cornered me. No one else in there could manage that."

"Everyone fought hard, since it was a tournament," I tell him, not about to fall fore mere flattery. "Forgive me, but I don't quite believe that would be your _only_ reason for giving me this. Honestly, it seems like a pretty cheap explanation to me."

I can feel my friends shooting daggers at me with their glares, but I pay them no attention. Their opinions don't matter right now. This is something I'm going to be very cautious and intently curious about. I can tell that Drake is quickly becoming irritated with my questioning. Using a clearly strained tone, he tells me, "Look, I've been trying to find someone worthy enough to give this to for a long time now. And I really can't bring myself to sell it. So, I've decided to give it to you."

"Why?" I pressed him more. I wasn't sure that that reasoning was legitimate, but I could tell that he certainly wanted to give this treasure away.

I can feel his irritated emotion like an aura in the air at this point. Impressively, he keeps his attitude mostly under control as he explains to me, "You are extremely intelligent, you have proven that to me by finding multiple holes and shortcuts in my routine. No one else has ever managed to stump me that many times in so many ways in a single match. You're still young, as well, so you'll certainly be able to hold onto it for a while."

"…Okay. I feel that I can accept that," I tell him, convinced of his legitimacy. "Much thanks to you, Drake. I'll be sure to keep it safe for years to come."

He heaves a relieved sigh and hands the necklace to me. I fumble with it a bit before I put it on as he mutters something about kids being difficult under his breath.

Drake shakes his head and puts on a smile as he looks back at me and says, "Well, I shall say farewell now. Hopefully, we shall meet again sometime."

"Perhaps," I respond in turn. "Goodbye, Drake. Have a good evening."

Kaylub, Terry and I proceed to turn around and begin heading for our bus stop, with them questioning me on why I hadn't taken the necklace straightaway. As I begin explaining my reasoning throughout the matter, I heard something impossibly familiar.

Very faintly, as if a couple dozens of feet away, I hear that all-too-familiar chuckle.

I quickly whip around, and looking practically frantically, but I could only see the people leaving the building.

"What's up?" Terry asks me, likely concerned as to my sudden action.

"…Just… thought I heard… something," I half-said, half-muttered.

"Well, we'll be going now. I see your bus coming, too," Kaylub says, bringing me back to reality. "See ya."

"Yeah…" I mumble in response. The two of them walk away as the bus pulls up beside me.

As I boarded the bus moments later, something struck me.

Drake was nowhere in sight when I had turned around.

However, I shake off the feeling and rationalize my thoughts. _He could've just gotten in his car. Or went back in the building._

On the bus ride back, I did not play any of my games. I just closed my eyes and relaxed, trying not to dwell on the whole matter. I just needed to clear my mind.

* * *

"...History needs some changing."

"Agreed. Shall we get started?"

* * *

After disembarking from the bus, I set my path towards home, which is about a mile's walk. An easy trek for me. As I walked this mile, however, I eventually find my thoughts trailing back to the necklace that Drake had gifted me. I honestly still find it absolutely astounding and unbelievable that some random stranger I'd only just met and faced at a tournament, and even lost to, had given me such a priceless item.

Taking hold of it in my left hand, I look down at the necklace, taking in its minute intricate details. The gem itself is indeed a beautiful amethyst of dark purple gleaming up at me. With how its casing felt, I determined that it was almost certainly real gold. I assume that the blue chain was just dyed metal, but with a second, closer glance, as well as another run-over with my finger, these chain links could very well be finely-carved sapphire! That's… how?!

As I look closer at the amethyst, I run my thumb over it, and notice something I hadn't before. Peering closer at the amethyst, I realized two things. For one, something has been engraved on the jewel. As I felt it over, I determined that it was not a word nor a letter. After studying it longer with my finger, I determined that it couldn't be hiragana, hanzi, katakana, or kanji, either. The grooves didn't have the right feel for any of them. So, through that, I eliminated the chance of it being hanja, romaja, hangul, or chữ nom. I carefully went through other types of scripture, eliminating all the ones it couldn't be. I went along to determine that it couldn't be any character from the Thai, Arabian, Greek, Hebrew, Georgian, Persian, Ge'ez, Bengali, Gujarati, Telugu, Devanagari, Gallifreyan, Kannarese, Cambodian, Laotian, Burmese Myanmar, Gurmukhi, Sinhalese, Tamil, or Malayalam written languages, all of which I knew very well due to years of nerdy studying of foreign written languages.

The best conclusion that I can come up with was that it must be some kind of 'rune'. That was the only possibility I can logically come up with, because I doubt that I was given something with a family crest or character engraved onto it.

The second thing I've noticed is that there appears to be something inside of the amethyst, just beyond the 'rune'. As I squint to look at it, I begin to get a headache, likely from trying to see something so small inside such a dark encasement. Eventually, I make it out to be a little ball-like object that apparently glows dimly, its light dulled further by the dark jewel.

I find myself analyzing every bit of the jewelry as I walk, my pace greatly slowed now. When I return to looking at the ball, I trace my thumb over the strange rune with my finger, trying to make out its shape in my head.

That was when my day reached its peak of abnormalities.

I watched as the little ball inside the jewel suddenly began to lose its shape and glow a bit brighter, squirming around and flowing like a liquid in place. At first, I'd thought I had been seeing things, so I let go of the necklace, letting it fall against my chest, and rubbed my eyes. From where it lay on my chest, I look down at the amethyst.

It was not glowing.

 _That… was pretty damn weird…_ I think to myself, unnerved by that trick of my eyes. Blinking a few times, I continue walking as I think about what it was that I just 'saw.'

It was when I was approximately a quarter-mile away from home when it happened.

After a long time spent pondering the previous events, I pick the jewel up again to look at it again, only to be blinded. Regaining my vision a moment later, I stare in awe as I see that the entire jewel has brightly lit up, glowing a brilliant yellow that brightens the purple color of the jewel, and even escapes out of some of its facets. I stare at this glowing amethyst, dumbfounded for a few seconds, and suddenly drop it again, very confused and somewhat panicked by the inexplicable event.

As soon as the necklace hits my chest, I feel this strange wave of numbness wash over my entire body. Suddenly, I find that I can't feel my arms, or most of my upper body for that matter. Horrifyingly, I can feel my loss of feeling slowly spreading.

Terrified by this sudden effect, I begin running as fast as I can to reach home. I'm not completely sure why, I just feel like I'll be safe there. As I start running, the necklace bumps against my chest again, as I hadn't thought to take it off after all this happening. But when it hits my chest this time, a whole new wave goes over me, and I quickly lose the feeling of _everything_. My legs, my feet, my head, _even my tongue_ ; I can no longer feel _any damn thing_. And this time, the numb feeling is accompanied by a very persuasive drowsiness. Expectedly, I trip.

There's the faint sensation of falling for a moment, by my eyelids are so heavy I can barely see out from under their half-closed state. I can barely register the pain caused by my left temple colliding with the pavement, the collision likely aiding my descent into unconsciousness.

Just before I fell into complete darkness, however, I _could_ feel hot, immense pain that took place all over my body. Just before I blacked out from the pain, however, I was able to just barely catch a flash of green and brown coming towards me.

* * *

 **So, here it is. Chapter One of my first story. I accept any and all criticism, as I consider myself to be an aspiring writer. I hope you've enjoyed this beginning, even if it might have seemed a bit cliché. See you next chapter, perhaps?**

 **}EDIT: Rewrote most of the chapter.**

 **}}EDIT2: New editor The Max Revive here, and I looked back throughout this chapter alongside SixSouls. In this second rewrite, we took the story's body word count (this excludes the author's notes) from 4,168 to 6,666. Holy hell, eh?**


	2. 2 - Familiarization with Ponification

**Got back from my day, sat down at my computer, opened up FanFiction, and I nearly dropped my drink.** **Six** **followers already!? What the hell caused that to happen so quickly? Don't get me wrong, I'm overjoyed by this, it simply caught me quite off guard! So, I got the inspiration to bust this out quickly. Do enjoy!**

 **REMINDER: This story can be influenced by you all! Polls are up on my profile for** _ **you**_ **to affect how certain things go and what may happen next. Thank you for your potential participation.**

 **Also, I'll only be saying this** _ **once**_ **:**

 **DISCLAIMER: The following story is not to be viewed as official or canon, and is in no way associated with the** _ **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic**_ **television, comic, or like series.** _ **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic**_ **is owned by Hasbro, whom of which I, SixSouls, am not associated with. The only thing I own of this FanFiction is my interpretation of Early Equestrian times and my Original Character, Midnight Star.**

* * *

Rather slowly, I come to. Painfully so.

I'm barely able to realize that I've regained consciousness until I recognize that feeling of light assaulting my eyelids. Realizing now that I was awake, I quickly open my eyes. Greeting me is a powerfully bright light, which causes me to squint to the point that the only thing my eyes can register other than this light is the blue color of the sky.

Trying to make sense of my current state of being, I feel that I'm lying on my side, the grass on the ground brushing against me. Painfully, I try to support my upper body with my arms. My movements are greeted with this terrible sore feeling in my muscles and I take notice of the sudden, pounding migraine taking place in my head. I groan in irritation and reverse my attempts at holding myself up, closing my eyes completely. I lay there on the ground for a while, hoping to wait until the pains dull down.

During my time laying down, I take notice that I'm clearly still outdoors. I can feel the warmth of the sunlight that had earlier blinded me, and can feel the breeze brushing against my clothes and myself. I grumble, annoyed at the fact that I had simply been left where I'd fallen. Surely there must have been some people who would have walked by afterwards. Why would they just leave a fallen person without any regards towards their wellbeing!?

It's then that I realize something that greatly concerns me. When I fell earlier, after that weird as hell event that I still have troubling believing happened, I hit concrete ground. But I clearly feel grass and dirt against my face. Was I moved elsewhere in my unconsciousness?

About ten minutes pass, and the migraine has slowly dissipated. I'm now almost sure that the worst of the head pains have passed, so I try using my other senses to make heads or tails of where I was. The air here smells of a clean nature environment, and I can feel the long, uncut grass underneath me. Occasionally, I hear a bird's call, and a sound that I could only equate to underbrush rustling. There was a light breeze in the area, as well.

' _Am I... in a forest?'_

I slowly open my eyes, this time letting them adjust to the light rather than being blinded. Moving my head to face upwards, I can see the light blue sky with a bright sun slightly blotted out by the cloud cover and tree leaves. There are trees all around the edge of my vision. Seeing this proves that I am likely in a forest. Something about this is _quite_ a bit off however, and it takes me a moment to really register exactly what was wrong with this picture.

"...What trees do I know of that have white leaves?" I ask myself aloud. For, in fact, every tree that I can see has leaves of pure white. It certainly is quite a beautiful sight, but I was too concerned in the moment to really admire that act. Racking my brain for an answer to my question, I find my effort futile as each tree with white leaves that I can think could not possibly match the ones that surround me. These leaves are not green on one side. These trees do not have skinny trunks, seeing as they looked more like oaks. And I don't think I was unconscious long enough to have been transported to a forest in Hawaii or Japan.

Now very confused and quite concerned about my new situation, I try once more to sit up. Unexpectedly, I find that my back is angrily protesting my movements. Wincing from the pain, I turn my head in confusion, wanting to see what's causing this strange pain. My eyes widen in surprise as I see the feathered appendages and fine fur that had entered into my vision. It takes me a moment to what I was seeing, disbelief consuming me.

I was a pony.

* * *

 **Princesses' Big Brother!?  
Chapter 2 - Familiarization with Ponification**

* * *

To be honest, I had a bit of a freak-out episode after seeing this. A short panic attack consumes me as I begin wondering if I'm hallucinating, smelling my breath and inspecting my now-forelimbs for any possible signs of drug usage. After confirming that drugs were ruled out of the possibilities, I start hyperventilating once more before forcing myself to calm down. Panic does not help in a crisis.

After I've calmed down, I find myself having to accept that this is actually real and is happening right now. It's either that, or I'm in an extremely vivid dream. Testing this new theory, I shift my still-down form closer to the tree that I'd woken up next to. Confirming that I've come close enough to it, I rear back my head and…

 _ **WHAM!**_

Slam my head against the tree's trunk. I do not wake up from any dream, I instead feel a horrible pain shoot through my head before my skull even makes contact with the bark. My head turns to the side as the momentum I had keeps my head going, causing the side of my head to slam against the tree. I quickly retreat my head from the tree, pulling myself back towards the ground and moving my forelimbs up to hold my head. It takes all my willpower not to scream out from the intense pain I'd just received, settling with letting out many profanities under my breath.

"Motherfucking ow… holy hell, that hurts… shit… grrrr… ow, fuck, ow…" So on and so forth.

After caressing my temples and letting this new headache die down, I sigh and think about what had just occurred in these last fifteen-odd minutes.

' _Isn't it strange,'_ I thought? _'A brony, freaking out that he's become a pony. How lame, eh? I think most other bronies would smack me and asked why I wasn't singing and dancing in glee for such good fortune… One would think, that is.'_

' _However,'_ I thought, _'if one looks at this and think with a bit of logic, one would see that it is be absolutely normal to flip a shit if your body has suddenly been replaced with a new one and placed into an unrecognizable forest after losing consciousness due to a glowing necklace that causes you to go completely numb. A completely natural reaction!'_ I affirm for myself. So, taking a deep breath, I decide to approach things logically and take everything in stride with wariness on the side.

In any case, I have to accept now that indeed become a pony. So, in order to help myself come to full acceptance of this, I decide to familiarize myself with this… 'ponification.' May as well make the best of being a Pegasus, I guess. I facepal— sorry, facehoof at that thought, and find my hoof hitting an unfamiliar protrusion above my forehead.

* * *

E-Excuse me?

What?

 _What the fuck!?_

* * *

Observing this new form in more detail, I find myself not too happy, and that's putting it lightly. Whatever fates had brought me to this realm had me transformed into a full-fucking-blown _Alicorn_. Being contradictory once again to how one would expect a brony to react, I'm pissed at this fact. What am _I_ , an average seventeen-year-old guy, supposed to do with as the species that's hailed as _fucking royalty_? What was it that compelled fate or whatever it was that brought me here to give me both wings and a horn!? I'd've been perfectly fine with just one or the other! Hell, even neither! I hadn't exactly been considered special as a human, so why should that change!?

I let out an annoyed huff and continue going over my new details. My coat is this perfect silver color, gleaming in the bright sunlight, almost metallically so. My tail is colored royal purple, and my mane is a nice blue, which I find quite odd within itself. I remember that the manes and tails were often more than one color in the show, but I could not recall any instance where a pony had their mane differently colored from their tail. I'm not amuse by this, as it would likely be something that'd cause me to stand out even more.

Other than my tee, I'm still wearing the clothes I'd worn when the incident happened, with the only difference being that they had had their size shifted to fit my pony form. Having a sudden realization, I feel over my pockets to find that they still retained their contents. I smile at this, knowing that my precious electronics were safe. I frown moments later, realizing that if I am to believe that I'm in Equestria, most of these devices are going to lose their usability rather quickly. Likely, the only one that'll end up lasting the longest will be my GameBoy Color…

Another sudden connection leads me to finding that I'm still wearing the necklace that Drake had given me. I lift my hoof to it and move it to where I can inspect it.

I look deep inside the star-shaped amethyst that took up almost the entirety of my hoof, showing that it hadn't changed in size, yet I can see no trace of the glowing ball that had previously been inside it. The rune is still engraved on it, though. The only conclusion I can come to is that it must have been some spell sealed inside the gem. That's the only thing I can come up with.

With this conclusion, I realize that I had to accept the fact that I had almost undeniably been transported to what was most likely Equestria, and if not, then somewhere in that world. So, I figure I'll have to accustom myself to thinking by this world's physics and logic.

And its… magic… This might end up being somewhat of a challenge.

I take notice that I've been lying on my side this entire time. I pitifully gaze over myself, wondering how I'm going to properly stand up in this unfamiliar body. As my gaze moves, I suddenly tense up when my reach my hind legs. During my stillness, a centipede had decided to traverse its way up my unmoving leg. As if this weren't terrifying enough, the centipede happened to be _huge._ The closest comparison would have to be about the size of my forearm when I was human. In reaction, I do the sensible thing and shriek, kicking and scrabbling away from the insect. It responds accordingly and hightails itself the hell out of there, now aware that I was not an inanimate object.

I keep my side pressed awkwardly up against the tree for a moment as the centipede scrambles away, and relax once it was out of sight, letting out the breath I was holding. I slide back down the trunk a little, gravity reclaiming its effect once my resistance is removed.

Now at a loss of breath, I am panting from that short-lived encounter. I make a light huff, knowing that I can't lay here forever.

* * *

Now determined to get moving, I try to stand up. Of course, having walked bipedally upright for seventeen years, alternating to all-fours without walking on my back knees is likely to be somewhat challenging. I fail terribly on my first attempt to stand, slipping due to the unfamiliar structure of this body. I've been splayed across the ground, grumbling a few explicit phrases under my breath.

It takes about ten minutes for me to learn just how to stand somewhat properly, albeit with a wobbling stance. After maintaining a decent balance for a good few minutes, I decide that it's time to try and walk. I cautiously bend and lift my right foreleg, shifting my body's weight to keep in balance as I do so, then place it some inches in front of me. I tentatively perform the same action with my left hindleg, finding a little less difficulty. Over the course of a slow minute, I'd done this and mirrored the action, and I have taken my first step as a pony. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, I carefully walk in lines and circles, later attempting sidestepping and even walking backwards, both ending in failure multiple times before achieving a small success.

Once I'd successfully learned how to walk at more than a snail's pace, I sit down. Reflexively, I try to sit like I used to, only to find my body shift to sitting on my haunches. I want to rest a small bit before actually moving forward. While I sat, I look to my sides, staring at my wings. They're coming out of my shirt through some slits in the backs. _'Well, at least the shirt wasn't ruined by them._ '

After staring at the feathered appendages, I find myself somewhat curious. I think about trying to figure out how to get them to move. However, seeing as I had never had wings before, I have no idea how to use them at all. Deciding to work with some basic logic, I try focusing on the muscles in my back, around where the base of the wings would be.

Surprisingly, they shift in place a small bit in response.

Pleased with this response, I continue to explore the new muscles, hoping to figure out how they could work. As I try for quite a while to get them to work, with the most I can do being making them twitch and compress themselves a bit, I find myself struggling until an epiphany hits me.

 _'What if... they worked similar to arms?'_

This occurred to me from my remembering of the Pegasi's wings being moved similar to the way hands and arms would be in a select few instances from the show. So, I figure what would it hurt to try?

I go to move one again, this time focusing the bones' and muscles' movements as though they were arms. I receive a near-perfect response, the wings spreading out, but the large fathers remaining kept together. Happy that I've succeeded in my efforts, I pull them back in and stretch them back out in a repeated manner. It feels surprisingly nice, like stretching one's arms after a long sleep.

I continue experimenting with my new appendages, discovering that I can control the larger feathers somewhat similarly to how fingers would work, except with less intricacy. After a while of this, I decide that it's time to move on, seeing as the sun has moved more than halfway across the sky. I stand up again, less wobblily this time, and set off walking. I don't exactly want to try flying quite yet. I'm sure that'd end sorely.

* * *

I begin to explore this white-leaved forest that I had arrived to this world in. Looking around as I walk, I see many ferns and flowers that are completely alien to me, and others that I'm familiar with. I can see animals running around here and there, plenty of them familiar species, such as squirrels, dragonflies, and other animals I know well. However, I do notice a select few insects and rodents that I've never seen before. There's one bug that could be classified as an arachnid, but has large, fly-lie wings and forelimbs reminiscent of a preying mantis. Sometime later, I see this furry little animal that has a body like a ferret, but its fur becomes as bushy as a squirrel's tail towards the end of it, and it has a face like an otter's. I find myself quite fascinated by these alien species, but do not let them distract me for too long.

After I've been walking for a while without much of a goal in mind, I hear a rustling of leaves above and behind me. Figuring that it's simply another random animal, I ignore it and continue walking. However, I soon realize that the sound is following me. I take a few random turns after walking or some minutes at a time, and confirm that whatever it is, it is, it is most certainly following me. I stop walking and perform an upwards over-the-shoulder check, craning my neck slightly.

Up on a low branch of a nearby tree, there is a large cat staring down at me. It looks straight at me with bright blue eyes, perfectly perched on the branch. It has a look in its eyes that clearly shows the signs of intelligence behind them. After a moment of eye contact, it twitches its whiskers at me, and I carefully turn my body around to face it, doing my best not to stumble.

The cat is somewhat lean, from what I can tell, although it appears to be slightly pudgy. I figure that its likely a tomcat. His coat is colored cream-orange, the color tones more or less significant in some areas. His chest is pure white, as well as his underbelly, while his tail becomes more significantly orange towards the tip. One of his rounded-triangle ears flicks while I'm looking it over. His tail swishes around ever so slightly as he also looks down on me with a gaze of interest.

As I'm studying the details of this cat, it suddenly dawns on me that my vision has advanced incredibly compared when I was human. Then again, I'm pretty sure that my eyes have increased in size by multiple times, so it shouldn't be that surprising that my vision is improved.

Anyhow, I figure that it's just some wild cat that's confused as to my presence in its territory. I turn away from it, making sure not to trip in a tangle of legs, and continue my directionless wandering. It's not a moment later that I find the cat walking alongside me.

I look down at it, and, in turn, it looks back up at me, making direct eye contact. This surprises me a little.

I stop walking. The cat does too.

"What? Are you supposed to be my version of the Cheshire Cat?" I ask of it jokingly.

He meows in response, and begins walking again. Having not expected an actual response from the animal, I stand stock still in slight confusion. Noticing my absence, the cat looks over his shoulder and, surprisingly, appears to be beckoning me with his tail.

"I'll… er, take that… as a yes…? O~kay, then," I mumble, and began to follow the cat.

* * *

This damned cat has been leading me through this seemingly endless forest for what must have been twenty minutes now, taking random turns here and there for no apparent reason. Hell, for all I know, it might be trying to stay within its territory, or avoid other animals' territory. All I know is that that the only thing worthwhile I have to do right now is follow this apparently somewhat-sentient cat.

After walking for who knows how goddamn long, my ears pick up a new sound that I hadn't heard during my entire time wandering through these trees. It certainly isn't a normal nature sound. In fact, it sounds pretty familiar. As we get closer towards the source of this noise, I can definitively place my fing— er, hoof on what it is.

It's the sound of children crying.

Without warning, the cat dashes away from me, heading speedily towards what I hope is the source of the crying. With this hope in mind, I quickly follow it, albeit clumsily. Running was something I hadn't practiced in this body, so I don't expect to make it in one shot. My thought is confirmed mere moments later when I trip on a root protruding from the ground, causing my chin to slam into the dirt. Feeling some soreness in my lower jaw, I considered myself lucky that I hadn't bit my tongue. Toughing it out despite the pain, I pick myself up and continue on towards crying sounds.

Some minutes later, I find myself a small clearing with a very large tree in the middle. Its roots are visible all across the ground, and its trunk looks wide enough to likely rival General Sherman. I can almost clearly hear the crying nearby, but I can't tell exactly where it's coming from.

I look around my surroundings for a moment, but I am unable to see any living creature other than one of those otter-face creatures and a few bugs in the air. I'm about to call out towards whoever's nearby, but the cream-orange cat comes dashing out from behind the large tree, giving me a sharp meow. He proceeds to go back behind the tree, giving one last beckoning motion with his tail before disappearing from my sight.

Confused, but understanding what it wants me to do, I follow it around to the back of the tree. There, I find that there's a small opening in the tree, quite close to the ground. I'll have to bend down to see inside that hole, where I'm pretty sure that cat has disappeared to. After lowering myself enough with quite a bit of difficulty, I find that the hole was so compact that I can barely even fit my head inside thanks to my horn. I have to rear back and duck my head a bit before entering my head inside.

Once I've seen the contents of the hole, though, I'm surprised by two facts. Firstly, this tree has been perfectly hollowed out, the exterior of the trunk likely only a couple inches thick. Secondly, the crying that I'd heard had been coming from inside here, it's echoed sound expelling into the forest via a hole in a notch a little higher up in the tree.

The source of that crying? The four foals of varying color schemes and races that are inside. It looks like they've been taking shelter here for quite a lengthy amount of time. The white Pegasus and the turquoise Unicorn were loudly sobbing together while the grey Earth Pony was sleeping off to the side, clearly disturbed in his dreams. The other Unicorn, the red one, seemed to be standing guard over the others. All of the foals appear to be very scruffy and unclean. The cat is pressing himself up against the white foal, who had wrapped a foreleg around him. The red colt who had been looking over at the cat when I'd poked my head in turned around as the turquoise foal lets out a gasp. The other two quickly notice me, and the red Unicorn's eyes widen at my presence. Wearing a relieved expression upon seeing me, he cheers, "We're saved!" in a loud, scratchy voice, causing the grey one to shoot awake.

At his declaration, the crying foals begin to calm down, smiling through their tears. The red colt excitedly rushes towards the tree's opening, and I remove my face from the hole to allow his exit. He lets out a whoop of happiness as he runs a few circles around me while the rest of the foals exit the tree shelter themselves. Soon enough, all four of them have left the tree, the Pegasus having wiped all the tears away is now flittering around in the air joyfully. Alongside the cat, the turquoise Unicorn is still wiping tears, though with that expression, I think the tears may no longer be from fear. The Earth Pony groggily walks towards the red Unicorn, pulling him away from his circling. After that action, I cautiously take a step back to give the four of them a bit of room, as they seem to be gathering directly in front of me.

"Thank you!" the red colt expresses his gratitude, as the others nod in agreement.

"Er, there's no need to thank me," I tell them. "It was that cat that brought me here."

The turquoise Unicorn pets the cat next to him, which leans his head into the gesture.

"Who are you?" the grey colt asked calmly "I don't recognize you at all."

"He's a stranger, then, duh! You don't think you know _every_ Unicorn, do ya?" the white filly answered him before I could say anything. I'm glad for her interjection, though, seeing as I don't quite have an answer for that. The two continue to bicker about whatever it is that they're going on about.

"We thought nopony would ever find us…" the red colt continues with relief, looking up at me with what I now notice as a weak expression. Looking over them all, they all appear to be quite weakened.

"Well, I guess I ended up finding you, therefore negating that thought of yours," I say awkwardly. I really don't know what to say in this kind of situation, seeing as I don't know where they live, or where the nearest civilization is.

As the red colt is about to respond to my strange comment, he suddenly looks back towards the bickering Pegasus and Earth Pony and says, "What're you two talking about? He's a Pegasus!"

"Are you blind?" the Pegasus filly looks at the red Unicorn as if he were mental. "His horn is _right there!_ "

I suddenly realize where this is heading.

"I _clearly saw_ his wings just moments ago!" the colt counters. When he turns back towards me, though, he appears astonished upon looking at my head. Or, more specifically, my horn.

"See?" The Pegasus tells the colt, smirking as she begins flying towards me. Specifically around me. "He's a Unic…" She trails off as she sees my side. Or, more specifically, my wing.

"W-Wait… Y-You're…" the filly stutters.

' _Ah, shit.'_

* * *

 **And there you go! Chapter Two, our main character has now encountered other ponies, how will this go from here, hmm? I would like to remind my readers that** _ **all of you**_ **can have an impact on this story, and determine where it goes; Polls go up on my profile page for just about every posted chapter after the next one! So please, pitch in your vote, as I'd love to see your interaction!**

 **And, maybe share this story… or something, I guess.**

 **Anyways, until next chapter.**

 **}EDIT: Editor The Max Revive** **here. We went through this chapter, too. Added a lot of things, revamped certain scenes and fixed some grammatical errors.**


	3. 3 - Questions, Questions, Questions

**This story is greatly influenced by the readers; Polls will be up on my profile for** _ **you**_ **to affect how the story will move forward after this chapter's posting. Thank you for your potential participation!**

* * *

 _ **Previously in Princesses' Big Brother?:  
**_ _I was a pony.  
_ _What was it that compelled fate or whatever it was that brought me here to give me both wings and a horn!?_  
 _"What? Are you supposed to be my version of the Cheshire Cat?"  
It was the sound of crying.  
Inside were four foals.  
"Y-You're…" the filly began.  
'Ah, shit.'_

* * *

 **Princesses' Big Brother!?  
Chapter 3- Questions, Questions, Questions**

* * *

"Umm…" I say dumbly. _'Nice going, man,'_ I mentally berate myself. _'_ _Absolutely_ _brilliant.'_

"It wasn't just any old pony who found us," the gray Earth Pony colt says, completely mystified. "An _Alicorn_ found us."

Before I can even begin to say anything, the red and turquoise Unicorn colts start barraging me with questions in a flash.

"Why are you here?" the red one asks.

"Are you a prince?" the turquoise one follows.

"Are you from some far-off land?"

"Are you here to talk to the King and Queen?"

With each question, I find myself taking a step back. I certainly was _not_ ready to deal with hyperactive children today. Then again, I wasn't exactly ready to be transported to another world and given a different body, but that's just going into semantics.

"What's your name?"

"Do you know the Princesses?"

"How strong are you?"

"How fast can you go?"

"What do you—"

The rapid-fire questions have me very unnerved. I've taken quite a few steps backwards without realizing, my wings subconsciously unfolding halfway. All I know is that I can't actually answer many of those questions, and I'm getting somewhat nervous as to that fact.

"Flame! Bubble!" the white Pegasus filly yells at the two, flying up to them and snapping their jaws shut with her front hooves. "Leave him alone, you're bothering him!"

The two abruptly stop due to her silencing action, muttering their apologies once she's released their jaws. They back off a bit, and I find that I can now relax, letting out the breath that I had been holding. My wings fold back, returning to my sides.

"Sorry about that," the filly apologizes again. "We don't see many foreigners 'round here, and since other than our own royalty, we've never seen another Alicorn, I hope you can forgive their rudeness."

"It's alright," I say, retrieving my calm demeanor. "It's... understandable, I suppose."

She sighs, though I'm not sure if it's from relief or dissatisfaction. "I'm Windy Breeze," she introduces herself. "Those two _dolts_ are Bubble Burst and Flame Spark." She spat the clear insult coldly towards the two colts.

"Hey!" the two Unicorns cry out in return, apparently very offended.

"I'm Rock Crumble," the grey Earth Pony colt steps forward and introduces himself, finally speaking again after all that commotion. His voice is completely monotone.

"Uh, it's nice to meet you and all, but... what were you all doing out here?" I ask them. I'm honestly a bit more concerned for their safety right now rather than getting to know them. Y'know, seeing as they're a group of kids who clearly haven't eaten in a while, who are out here, deep in the wilderness, with night approaching. Who knows what's in this forest, considering the world I'm now in?

"Um..." Flame Spark spoke up. "It… it's my fault, sir. I'd wanted us to go exploring in the woods, but… we got lost."

Surprised by his addressing of me, I raise a brow. "First off," I start. "There's no need to call me 'sir.' Actually, I'll ask that you refrain from doing so. Secondly, how long have you four been lost for?"

"Since _yesterday!_ " Windy angrily exclaims, her blue eyes glaring daggers at the red Unicorn. His ears droop, and he seems to be trying to make himself look smaller. "Sorry," he apologizes to the others pitifully. I can see deep regret in his orange eyes.

I'm quite surprised. These kids have been missing for more than a full day. One would expect the forest to be crawling with guards or something, diligently searching for them.

Then again, I do believe that that tree would prove quite concealing to one not attentive enough.

"But, now that you're here," Bubble Burst says happily, his green eyes sparkling. "We'll be able to go home!" The Unicorn's statement seems to cheers everyone up. Contradictory to the foals', it causes me to frown. Rock Crumble apparently notices this, and the grey colt narrows his large brown eyes suspiciously at me. I find myself believing him to be the most intelligent amongst these four. I decide to deliver the bad news.

"Unfortunately for all of us, I don't know the way to civilization, myself," I tell them solemnly. Their expressions all drop in despair at that. I hate to have to ruin their joy, but I can't have a party wander around lost because of falsity, now can I?

"Meow."

Suddenly, the cat meows again, reminding me of its existence. We all turn our heads toward it as it walks forward, its chest puffed out like it had suddenly found purpose.

"Wait… don't tell me that you know the way there, too?" I ask it skeptically.

The cat nods in response, causing me to stare in absolute disbelief. He turns around and, with another flick of his tail, beckons us to follow him once more.

"Wait," Windy speaks up. "What?"

I silently snicker at her reaction. "That cat found me when I was wandering lost. As I said earlier, he was the one who led me here to you all," I explain to the four. "Apparently, he knows this forest quite well."

Flame Spark's eyes light up. "So, we _are_ going home?"

"Seems so," I plainly confirm. The foals respond to this with calls of pure excitement, excluding Rock Crumble, who simply smiles, relief evident in his expression.

We move forward to follow the cat, who I hope knows where these kids actually need to go. Internally, I'm quite relieved by this. It had been frustrating enough wandering around with no clear direction on my own. If four foals were added to the party in those conditions… I shudder at the thought of such hell.

* * *

As we've continued this walk through the forest, I figure at least forty or fifty minutes have passed since our finding the foals. I looked back at said foals, who are already visibly exhausted from the trek. I returned my gaze forward, glad that I went on frequent walks back home. It seems my stamina has followed me to this world.

I suddenly hear them whispering amongst each other again, and I am caught off guard when moments later they're scrambling to catch up to me, soon at my sides. I feel somewhat closed in by the foals, and judging from the inquisitive looks in their eyes, I prepare myself for the inevitable questions to come.

"So..." Windy Breeze trails off her starter to claim my attention. "Are you related to the Princesses?"

"No," I answer, glad that it had been an easy one. I can understand her question, as I suspect Alicorns don't just randomly show up everyday like I did.

"So you're from another land?" Flame Spark follows up.

"…Yes, that's correct," I tell him after a moment of hesitation. I hope they don't pry any further into that specific detail. I'm sure how to answer.

" _Wow!_ I never thought I'd meet a foreign Alicorn!" Windy Breeze exclaims, quite happy with this development. "I can't believe it!"

"Yeah!" Bubble Burst agrees. I decide to speak up against their enthusiasm, lest their praise become too over-the-top.

"Don't get too excited; I hold no role of importance, royalty or otherwise," I explain to them.

The four foals all gaze up at me, shock and confusion evident in their eyes. "What?" Flame Spark questioned. "You're not royalty, but still an Alicorn? You mean… you're actually a commoner?"

"…That is the case, yes," I tell the foals, using a tone of voice that I hoped would enforce that I wanted to end this conversation. I didn't want to be harsh, but if they keep pushing, I'll have no problems doing so.

The foals remain silent for quite a while before pulling away from me, regrouping some space behind me. They probably thought that it was a sensitive subject or something. Or perhaps they considered my response harsh without my intending it to.

No matter. I liked the quiet.

* * *

We walked onwards for approximately another half hour, following the cat. Night has now fallen, the stars covering the sky, a crescent moon floating in the sky. We've had multiple times where the foals have complained about wanting to stop go rest, in which I explained to them that if they stop, their muscles will feel even worse when they start walking again. It wasn't as annoying a journey as I'd tout it'd be, but it still could have gone better.

Once we eventually started to hear the familiar sounds of civilization, The four foals' faces lit up with joy and relief, and they started to rush ahead. However, as they do so I call out to them to stop. They turn around, and Flame Spark calls back at me with a skeptical, "What now?"

"You shouldn't just rush ahead and leave me behind like that, whether we're close to your home or not." I say to them, frowning as I move to catch up with the now-stopped foals. "It's quite rude, you know. Besides, I'll be seeing to it myself that you each home, since you're likely to be in quite the bit of trouble with the townsfolk." The foals recoil slightly at my words, except for Rock Crumble, who openly agrees.

"That does makes sense," Rock Crumble said, and, after a moment of hesitation, the rest of them nod, grouping up with me once more.

 _'At least something around here does,'_ I silently respond to Rock Crumble's statement.

With that, the five of us continue toward the edge of the forest.

As we near civilization, however, the cat stops in his tracks. The foals look at it in confusion and Bubble Burst asks, "Why'd he stop?"

"Because he lives in the forest, duh," Flame Spark crudely explains. "He helped us, but he doesn't want to leave his home."

"Aww…" Bubble Burst pouts, probably having thought she'd bonded with the cat, but she treks on along with the others.

I, however, stop to look back at the cat. Our eyes meet again for a moment, and I give the cat my silent thanks by bowing my head to it. When I look back up, he nods to me, which I presume means he acknowledges my gratitude. He gives what appears to be a smile before he bounds off into the forest, where I quickly lose sight of him in the underbrush. I turn around and leave the woods, quickly catching back up with the foals, who'd stopped after a short distance, likely due to my absence. I began readying myself for whatever it was that waited on the other side of these trees.

It's then that the realization hits me of the fact that I've been handling this situation a little differently than how I would've done so before... I dismiss the thought, however, figuring that I acted the way I did due to feeling fatigued. I really wanted to take a rest.

* * *

It turns out that we never reach what could exactly be called the edge of the forest, as I find that this town has actually been integrated into the forest. From what I can see in front of me, the town has been built right into the forest, in what I presume was once a large clearing, as I can still see somewhat of a border of forest around the parts of town I can see. I like this. A legitimately clean nature environment, with a civilization that clearly hasn't had malicious intent towards it. I approve.

Focusing on the current situation rather than my evaluation of the town, I'm quite glad that we've arrived at this town during nightfall. Otherwise, I'm certain that my Alicorn body would've attracted much unwanted and misunderstood attention from the town's residents. I groan again, thinking about just how much trouble this form will probably cause in the near future. A sudden exclamation from the red Unicorn colt distracts me.

"Just a bit further, and we'll be home!" Flame Spark announces, pulling me out of my thoughts. His declaration sparks a dark possibility in my mind. And yes, pun intended. Pun _always_ intended.

"Are you sure?" I ask, grabbing the four's attention. "You're certain that this is the right town? I've heard of plenty of towns and villages being built with the same layout, so I'm just concerned that you may think you know where you are, when you're not."

Rock Crumble looks over at me with an inquisitive expression, and inquires in his monotone voice, "What other town would be around in this forest, if not our home?"

"Yeah!" Windy Breeze accompanies Rock Crumble's question. "This is the only place around these trees!"

I'm a little ticked at their somewhat accusatory tones, and respond with, "Well, it's not like I knew that. I only asked because I certainly don't know where in the hells I'm at here. Excuse me for not knowing a place I've never visited like the back of my ha— hoof."

The foals look taken aback by my response. Likely because I said it with more agitation than I've let out before, as well as the probably unfamiliar phrase as well as my slip-up at the end. Before they can say anything about any of those, I speak up again to cover up my mistakes and move us forward.

"So, let's get moving again, since you know your hometown better than I do. I need to get you each home so I can go about my own personal business," I tell them, making up the fact that I have something I need to be doing to give them a false sense of urgency.

"Right!" Bubble Burst says. "Let's get home, everypony, so we can finally have dinner!"

Her words drastically boost the morale of her fellow foals, and with a reinforced burst of energy that comes out of nowhere, they scurry ahead, making me have to pick up my pace in order to keep up with them. I don't shout to them to slow down this time, since I'd rather not give anyone a… sorry, anypony a rude awakening.

We soon arrive at a large cottage-like house. It looks to have three stories, with each fourth of the house painted a different color. I notice that the majority of these colors match up with these foals. I easily connect the dots.

"Wait, do all four live in the same house?" I ask the four. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you lot don't look like siblings."

"We do, and you're right, we aren't. The housing situation is necessary," Rock Crumble tells me, still retaining monotone. I wonder if it's natural. "We don't have enough space to have a house for everypony's individual families anymore."

"Huh," was my brilliant response. _'Wonder why they don't just expand the city a little further out into the forest. Certainly using a few more of those trees won't hurt much.'_

As we approach the door, I walk past the foals, directly in front of the entrance. After hesitating for a moment, with the foals now moved to my side, I knock loudly.

Waiting there for a few moments, I faintly hear some scrambling inside, which seems to turn into noisily going down stairs. As I hear the awoken pony approaching, it hits me.

I'm a stranger who these ponies have never seen, who suddenly shows up with their kids. I have no idea how to explain the situation, and the adults are certainly going to be much pushier with their questions towards me than these children have. I'll have no choice but to answer them, or else they'll be suspicious of me, right?

' _What the hell am I going to say!?'_

* * *

 **Sorry for lack of chapters, everyone, but I'm out of time. Got bigger things to do in real life than write FanFiction. Polls will now be going up with just about every chapter, including this one. It's in the power of you readers to inluence the story.**

 **You know, almost like a Tumblr ask blog that has a story.**

 **Anyways, happy browsing.**

 **}EDIT: The Max Revive again, having gone through with SixSouls and spruced up this chapter. Turned that short little thing into this better thing. Although it may not be a 4000+ word monster like the previous chapters, it still got better with some additional lines and scenes.**


	4. 4 - A Humble Abode

**After a silence that lasted far too long, I am back! Thank you to those who waited patiently for me to continue, and hopefully those who left me for dead might return or my revival.**

 **According to the poll, the majority vote goes towards the situation's level of badness reaching 6 out of 10. I shall write it accordingly!**

 **I'm not going to waste your time here, so let's go!**

* * *

 _ **Previously in Princesses' Big Brother!?  
**_ _"It wasn't just any old pony who found us… An_ Alicorn _found us."  
These kids have been missing for a full day.  
"So you're from another land?"  
"…Y-Yes, you could say that."  
I'm quite glad that we've arrived at this town during nightfall.  
I groan again, thinking about just how much trouble this form will probably cause in the near future.  
"Wait, you all live in the same house?"  
I knocked on the door.  
'…Wait. What the hell am I going to say!?"_

* * *

 **Princesses' Big Brother!?  
Chapter 4- A Humble Abode**

* * *

I wait at the door, practically sweating bullets as to the realization of the situation I've brought upon myself. I'm not exactly sure why I'd gone and done this. I very well could've just let the children make their own way home from the very start of the town. Yet, for some reason, I'd taken them the entire way to their house, insisting to be a mediator for the inevitable questioning to come.

Why!?

This is _not_ something I'd normally do! The me that I know would've bluntly told the kids to get home and try to do so safely, followed by turning around and walking my own way! Seriously, why did I do this? I'm finding myself more concerned with my personal out-of-character actions more so than the whole universe-traversing-body-changing predicament at this point!

In my panicked state, I feel that my wings have bristled quite a bit, and I find them to be quite ruffled. This does not help my current state of being. Although, the ruffling has revealed something to me; there are openings in my overshirt where my wings are, which have slipped partway into them. Finding this to be a good distraction from panicking, I carefully maneuver my wings into the openings, effectively hiding them from all eyes. Although it's a bit uncomfortable for my feathers—which leads me to realize that I can feel each individual feather—it conceals my wings perfectly.

After that's done, though, my brain has lost the momentary distraction, and now returns its focus back to what was considered important— What's going to happen now!?

As I stand still with these not-exactly-calming thoughts running rampant throughout my mind, the door opens inwardly at an incredible speed, and I am greeted with the stressed face of an Earth Pony stallion. With the dim lights coming from inside, I can see that he has dark red fur, and his mane and tail are colored a very dark grey that is somewhat reminiscent of charcoal. His tired orange eyes look over me in confusion, likely trying to recognize me. Clearly, there'll be no success there.

With another sudden burst of energy, Flame Spark bolts forward, calling out a bit loudly, "Dad!" and wraps his forelegs around one of the stallion's, his brown eyes gleaming. His father, after a moment of shock, reacts in turn as he shifts his attention down to the colt. As he recognizes his child, he's brightly beaming, now much more awake than before. Saying his son's name, he too wraps his free leg around the colt.

Flame's loud call appears to have reached through the whole house, as more lights light up inside the building and more hoofsteps are heard traversing the household. I'm still awkwardly standing at the doormat with the other three foals while Flame Spark and his father enjoy their being reunited. Soon enough, three more older ponies have gathered by the door, the remaining foals rushing towards their respective parents as they arrive. As awkward as this is, I can't help but admit that the whole reunion scene is rather touching, and a small smile appears on my face. Er, muzzle? Would I say muzzle instead of face for a expression of the mouth now? Goddamnit, I don't need any more confusion right now. _'Focus on the current events! Worry about miniscule details later!'_

After a long few minutes of standing at the open door awkwardly as these families radiate joy and relief, a yellow Unicorn mare with a brilliantly red mane takes notice of me, and as we make eye contact, I realize that my existence has finally been acknowledged once more. She walks up to me and asks, "Was it you who found our foals?"

"Huh?" I uttered, caught off guard by her approach. "Ah, y-yes, that is the case." My response draws the attention of the other parents, likely having taken notice as to the foreign voice.

Honestly, I'm the one who's taken aback by a foreign voice, due to the fact that the mare has a clearly Scottish accent.

The yellow mare suddenly pulls me into a hug saying in a relieved tone, "Thank you… ever so much."

I'm left standing very tensely still as she hugs me, having not expected the sudden gratuitous motion. _'Just how awkward is this night going to get…'_

Once the mare finally releases me, I begin to step back, deciding that I'm going to leave before I get myself any more involved. I'm trying to act contrary to the out-of-character decision I'd previously made, since I'm quite unnerved by its occurrence. Before I can back away much more than a step, a dark blue Earth Pony stallion left Windy Breeze to approach me, using his hoof to usher me inside without a word. His grey eyes seemed to convey all the gratitude he had to be said.

After a moment of second-guessing and hesitation, I leave behind the possibility of being able to leave and step through the open door. The stallion politely closes the door behind me after my entrance.

"Erm…" I'm honestly not really sure how to react at first. It hadn't occurred to me at first that the ponies would be friendly. I decide that it would be smart to respond to the mare's gratitude.

"It's, uh, no problem, really," I tell her. "Actually, it's all thanks to a forest cat that I found them and got us out of the forest, so if anyone's to be thanked, it'd be him."

As I spoke, the dark blue stallion had come beside me, using his hoof to lead me further inside the house. All the present residents turn to face me as I approach them uneasily. I've gotten myself into an inescapable situation, I'm sure.

Walked up to them, I take notice that they're all about a little less than a head taller than me. Based on this fact, I presume that I'm probably around the height of an older teenage stallion now. Well, at least that tells me that I've retained my physical age.

"Yeah, it's thanks to that cat that we're here now," I say. "I was just the one led around by him."

Looking around the place, I find the house's interior to be quite quaint, with a pleasant fragrance in the air. I think it might be an incense. They've now stopped leading me across the house, and the dark red colt who'd opened the door, Flame Spark's father, now motions to me to appropriate myself at what appears to be their dining table. They all sit down in the chairs around the table and look towards me, likely expecting me to follow suit. I, however, choose to awkwardly continue standing, which one of them picks up on and continues the conversation.

"A wild cat, you say?" he inquires, his voice deep and gruff. He's the grey Earth Pony stallion still being hugged by Rock Crumble. "Perchance, was he cream-colored with orange accented fur?"

"With bright blue eyes? Yes, that's the one," I affirm to him. Hearing this explanation gives me a slight pang of nostalgia, but I can't identify where from.

"Ho-ho! So the Cat of Fire himself is still kicking! Good to hear!" the stallion says with a celebratory tone. The deep tone of his laugh is practically comparable to Zeus, in my opinion. From looks alone, he looks almost exactly like his son, other than that his mane is dark brown. Personality-wise and vocally, though, at least from the interactions I've experienced, he couldn't be any more different.

"Quite lucky about that, eh?" he asks in a reminiscent tone, but I assume that it's likely a rhetorical question. Instead, I respond with my own inquiry.

"…Cat…of Fire, you say?" I ask, concerned as to the title. The nostalgic feeling crops up again, and I'm pretty sure I'm beginning to remember where from. However, I deem it logically impossible, and that it's just some weird, inter-universal coincidence, like parallels or something along that line.

"Yep," Flame Spark's father speaks up, with him being the first to have the accent I'm most familiar with. I turn my attention to him as he speaks. "He was my pet for about two years after we found him wandering the forest, lost and hungry. Nopony could ever properly decide on a name for him, so he was often called by many different names by different ponies."

He pauses, likely reminiscing on the memories. Then, his face hardens before he continues, "That was before the fire happened, though. During the crisis, he seemed to take a strong sense of authority, and personally led all the foals and panicked adults through to safety. After the flames were taken care of, he was praised by everypony for his efforts, and was finally named as 'The Cat of Fire.' The main reasoning being how he moved just as powerfully and gracefully like the flames had."

The story leaves me somewhat stunned. Had I not seen the cat's intelligence first-hand, I probably wouldn't have believed the story at al—

Wait. Would it be first-hoof now? Ugh… I'm going to get a headache if I keep worrying about pony vocabulary…

I'm shaken out of my thought when I find myself being addressed.

"So, what's your name, kid?" the white Pegasus mare asks me, with no refined tone in her voice whatsoever. I'm not sure why, but I'd expected a British accent from her. The New Yorker accent completely caught me off guard. Her purple eyes look over me with an inquisitive gaze.

' _What's with all the varying accents?'_ I wonder. _'It's like eavesdropping on airport conversations…'_

"Oh, yeah!" Windy Breeze spoke up from beside the older mare. "We never asked you about that, did we?"

"How rude of us," Rock Crumble murmurs, barely audible from here.

"Um… I'm…" I stuttered. I hadn't quite thought of that detail. "I'm…"

' _Shit, I should've expected this question! Why didn't I take the time to think up an appropriate name while walking around the forest? Damnit, I need to think up something fast…!"_

"It's okay, dear, we don't have any bad intentions," the yellow mare assures me, letting me know that my internal panic isn't quite as internal as I thought. "It's just your name, right?"

Faked a bashful look down to use as a cover, I rack my mind at top speeds for some kind, any kind of solution that wouldn't sound stupid, fake, or narcissistic. My looking down, however, brought me the perfect inspiration.

Right there, in front of my face, is the Drake's necklace, the star-shaped amethyst still dangling from the sapphire-colored chain on my neck.

Seeing, half of a solution comes to me. The other half comes an instant later, seeing as that's probably what it is by now. However, I decide that that second part of my solution should instead go first, so as to not have a stupid-sounding name.

Putting on a bit of an act to keep up the 'I'm nervous' air, I look up and mutter out a quiet, "I'm…"

The other ponies around the table look quite concerned as to my act, so I decide to ease out of it.

I fake a calming breath and 'determinedly' huff, standing straight up with to emit an air of renewed confidence. Some of the ponies break a small smile, likely pleased with my faked bravery.

"I'm Midnight Star. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

There is a brief moment of silence following my introduction, hoping nothing goes wrong as my new name sinks in. I find myself worried that I may have somehow made a mistake.

"What a nice name for a young colt," the yellow mare responds, breaking the silence again. I internally sigh in relief, now sure that that went smoothly. "I believe we should introduce ourselves as well."

That statement stops my relieved train of thought. _'Oh boy,'_ it hits me. _'This may take a while…'_

Everyone, ah, I mean, everypony looks around at each other, as if affirming that they're all in place. They seem to be sitting together with each of their present family members. After each family has nodded to each other in affirmation, they all turn back to with bright smiles. I can only hope that they won't be too loud.

It begins with the family far on the left side off the table, which leads me to notice that there's nopony sitting at the head of the table.

"I am Starsparks, and this is my husband, Scorched Anvil. I hope that our son, Flame Spark, didn't cause you much trouble on the way home," the yellow Unicorn mare introduces herself, the dark red Earth Pony stallion that answered the door, and the loud-voiced bright red Unicorn colt. To me, she sounds like she's got a faint Southern USA accent. It's not prominent, but it's there. "My talent is controlling fires, while my husband's is forging." They slide slightly off their chairs, just enough to show their cutie marks as they're explained. Starsparks' is that of a flame that sparks with stars, while Scorched Anvil's perfectly matches his name.

The sky-blue Earth Pony stallion across from Scorched Anvil begins introducing his family. He speaks with an air of self-confidence and professionalism, "My name is Cloudless Sky, and my wife here is Hurricane. Whereas my talent is art, hers is speed. And our daughter is named Windy Breeze," Their cutie marks are that of an artist's pallet-and-brush and a swirling wind current.

"I am Ocean Fragrance," the green Unicorn mare introduces herself, although her soft-spoken tone causes me to strain to hear her words. These families have all been doing this without missing a beat, which leads me to wonder how many times they've done this. "My husband's name is Silent River. Please know that he's mute. Our talents are very similar, and to keep it simple, they can both be equated to the act of maintaining safe water." Ocean Fragrance's cutie mark is a bright blue river, and Silent River's is that of a geyser, the latter of which I find rather contradictory. "Again, we are grateful that you helped Bubble Burst and the others return home safely."

Lastly, Rock Crumble's parents introduce themselves, and they keep it rather short. "Heya," the father greets. "I'm Rockpile, and my wife is named Shattered Stone." Their cutie marks perfectly reflected their names.

I began to wonder if names determined one's cutie mark, and therefore, their destiny, or if a pony's name was changed once their mark was received.

"So," Hurricane started after a small pause. "You a foreigner or somethin'? Those clothes there look pretty over-the-top for a regular travelin' pony."

"They're certainly quite extravagant," Starsparks comments in agreement.

As I'm about to respond, Bubble Burst speaks up.

"He's an Alicorn from a distant land!"

The foal's statement caused another silence, this one much longer than the previous.

This time, it was Cloudless Sky who broke it with an, "Excuse me?"

I let out a sigh, cursing myself for not thinking to tell the foals to keep that fact on 'the downlow' after hiding my wings. Then again, I had been panicking at the time.

"His wings are under his jacket!" Windy Breeze reveals, causing me to flinch at her blunt call-out.

I feel like I'm a child who's been caught red-handed hiding an important document.

Er, foal caught red-hoofed? Agh, it doesn't matter!

While I'd been silently berating myself for my lack of caution, the aforementioned Pegasus filly had flitted over to me and lifted up the side of my overshirt, revealing my feathered appendages. This revelation has shocked the ponies around the table, and, without realizing, I extend my wing to knock the filly's hoof away, allowing the overshirt to fall back in place once the wing has retracted. I feel the electronics in that side's pockets knock against my side.

"…That's a heavy jacket…" the filly comments, a confused expression on her face until she sees the bulges in the pockets. "…oh."

"By Solaris' beard…" Rockpile says quietly.

"He really is…" Scorched Anvil and Starsparks murmur, nearly in sync.

I take it that they're probably having delayed reactions to the wing reveal.

The murmurs are finally stopped by the awestruck Hurricane saying, "Well, throw me t'Cerberus, you really are'n Alicorn!"

Personally, I've never liked being stared at, so this situation is a little irritating to me. I've decided that I've had enough of just standing here silently and speak up against their unblinking gazes.

"Why does that matter?" I inquire a little sharply. "I don't think it's something to really be stared at about."

A few of them turn away, probably embarrassed from being called out. However, a select few ponies, mostly the foals, simply lighten their gazes, not staring as intensely, no longer unblinking. I realize now that I've been completely tensing up, so I take a breath and relax myself.

"Well, you don't exactly see a new Alicorn every day, Midnight Star. In the kingdom we're in, we only know of four Alicorns in existence, not counting you," Cloudless Sky informs me, confusion evident in his tone.

"Four?" I ask, now confused myself. That was one more than I knew of, unless they count changeling queens as Alicorns. I doubt that, though. So what's going on here. "My apologies, but, I've only ever heard of three Alicorns," I tell them, making my confusion and question evident.

"That's right!" Windy Breeze says, ready to answer my question. "There's King Solaris, Queen Eventide, and Princesses Celestia and Luna!"

My mind freezes for a solid moment. After I recover, I utter a brilliant, "Erm… what?"

Starspark gives a small "Oh!" that grabs my and everypony else's attention, and she continues with, "I suppose the information may have still not reached some foreign countries as to the birth of Princess Luna."

"Possibly," her husband says.

"Are you sure about that?" Ocean Fragrance asked. "Even after eight years? I highly doubt it."

"Maybe he just never heard about it."

I'm in complete shock right now. I only expected the second half of that answer alongside Princess Cadance and somepony else that I've probably forgotten about. It had been a while since I'd put watching the show on hold for a while before this turn of events happened, so I don't doubt that I'll have some things forgotten. However, I certainly remember that there was no King or Queen Alicorns. I'm certain of it.

'… _So there's a King and Queen here. And I can't use any theory that would put me anywhere other than Equestria, since they say that Luna was_ born eight years ago _? Could it… Does that mean…'_

"Um… Midnight Star?" Shattered Rock's voice snaps me out of the spiral of thoughts I'd been in, and in that moment, the realization strikes me hard.

' _Am I in a time before Equestria was even founded!?'_

* * *

 **Hopefully this chapter was good enough to make up for my absence. Also, if you go back, you'll find that I went and revised all the previous chapters! I have gone back and rewritten a lot of the story, adding more events and stuff! Reread and check it out!**

 **Also, remember that your contribution in the polls determines where this story goes. It'll sometimes be like a choose your own adventure story, and other times it'll ask how you want to see certain characters!**

 **Until the next chapter!**

 **}EDIT: The Max Revive here again, and it was left up to me to revise this chapter on my own, so I hope you like the changes that I've made.**


End file.
